China's tea exports will increase 2 percent year on year this year after exports exceeded 300,000 tonnes for the first time last year, the first China tea industry report released Wednesday here said.

The China Social Science Academy Press report said China's tea planting area has reached 1.86 million hectares, about half of the world total.

Representatives of Peking University, the Development and Research Center of the Fujian Provincial Government and Wuyi Academy - all organizers of the industry investigation - attended a ceremony in Wuyi Mountain in east China's Fujian Province, where much of China's tea is grown, Wednesday to mark the report's release.

The report said green tea is China's most favored tea, noting that exports of the tea totaled 230,000 tonnes last year.

Exports of flower tea and Pu'er tea (a fermented tea produced in southwest China's Yunnan Province) have begun to fall, the report said.

China exceeded India to become the world's largest tea producer in 2005. Output reached 1.3 million tonnes last year, accounting for 31 percent of the world total.

China's major tea export markets are Morocco, European Union countries, Japan and America.